Daggerheart Sold Out in Two Weeks, Has Three-Year Plan in Place

A recent interview with Business Insider revealed just how well Daggerheart did for Critical Role's Darrington Press when it first launched earlier this year. Ed Lopez, Critical Role's chief operating officer, revealed that Daggerheart sold out in two weeks. According to Lopez, Critical Role anticipated that their stock would last a year, but the game was forced to go into reprints in a hurry. "The amount of units that we ordered we thought was going to last us a year, and it lasted us literally two weeks," Lopez said. "It's a great problem, it's a Champagne problem, but it's now changing our view in terms of what this product can be."

Lopez also revealed that Darrington Press has a three-year plan in place for Daggerheart, which includes the already announced Hope & Fear expansion, which adds a new domain and several new classes and backgrounds to the game.

Lopez also spoke about the hires of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins, stating that the two would be working on both Daggerheart and D&D material for Darrington Press. "We really want their creative juices brought to the world of 'Daggerheart.' That being said, we're also doing a bunch of 'D&D' stuff, and who better to bring in than the guys who used to do it?" Lopez said.

 

[mamba]

It seems that a lot of people have friction with the 6-8 Encounter Dungeon between long rests style are precisely who are enjoying Daggerheart's style. Seems logical and consistent more than funny, honestly. They feel they are fighting 5E to have set piece fights, Daggerheart tees up setpiece fights without wrestling the system.

the issue was the lack of challenge, you can play D&D with fewer fights, just don’t expect them to be overly challenging, and the same appears to be true for DH (based on what was said, have no 1st hand experience)

 

[Parmandur]

But if your complaint is about challenge, neither seems to offer a solution with single or small # of encounters without tweaking.

Over the longterm DnD says do this many encounters and attrition will create a challenging encounter...

DH seems to say eventually there will be a famine of hope/flood of fear situation that makes a challenging encounter but you wont know when... which IMO seems counter intuitive to its narrative leanings. So I've gone with tweaking specific encounters, which because im not as familiar with DH has been its own challenge.

I have no complaint about challenge in 5E, but for most people who do the real issue seems to be the 6-8 Encounter expectations not working for them. Daggerheart has different assumptions, so it doesn't rub the same people the same way.

 

[zakael19]

I guess we will see what Dungeons of Drakkenhein for DH will look like. From the pitch it sounded like they are working closely with the DH creators.

DoD is an excellent fit for the sort of campaign prep that DH suggests within the GM section, since it's already even in 5e a fairly PC-centric set of "situations" around a fairly compact premise that ports really well to the "Campaign Frame" ethos. Based on what I've seen of the draft content they made publicly available, it looks like it's going to be not just a direct port - but taking the themes and idea of DoD and hooking them into DH's core engine. Already that Exploration environment for the city looks like it'll hit the "corrupted ground" mark better then my experience with the 5e setup.

 

[Scott Christian]

So why wasnt the quick start different in the ways you list? This is the intro for deciding whether this game is right for you and it displays none of the differences you listed above.

Because it's very short, which is the opposite of an adventure path. It is also keeping the rulebook formulaic, similar to other rulebooks. This way, the GM and players can decide to try it without a lot of research or deep understanding. Again, that is the opposite of an adventure path, which tries to dive deep for long periods of time. At least, that is my guess.

 

[Imaro]

Because it's very short, which is the opposite of an adventure path. It is also keeping the rulebook formulaic, similar to other rulebooks. This way, the GM and players can decide to try it without a lot of research or deep understanding. Again, that is the opposite of an adventure path, which tries to dive deep for long periods of time. At least, that is my guess.

Yes but this is your advertisement for the game... this is where you sell people on how it plays, if you dont then you're setting expectations incorrectly and you end up with an audience that leans more towards the traditional style of play... which I think has happened with DH to a point.

 

[zakael19]

Yes but this is your advertisement for the game... this is where you sell people on how it plays, if you dont then you're setting expectations incorrectly and you end up with an audience that leans more towards the traditional style of play... which I think has happened with DH to a point.

I concur that the QuickStart was a pretty badly designed thing to show off the strengths and intents of the system. But then again the Fabula Ultima QuickStart is just a little more Freeform and that game takes an even harder line at open worldbuilding and stuff. If they’d just made a few tweaks around the edges, I think Sablewood Messengers could’ve had a lot more space for player creativity as written.

 

[Imaro]

I concur that the QuickStart was a pretty badly designed thing to show off the strengths and intents of the system. But then again the Fabula Ultima QuickStart is just a little more Freeform and that game takes an even harder line at open worldbuilding and stuff. If they’d just made a few tweaks around the edges, I think Sablewood Messengers could’ve had a lot more space for player creativity as written.

The thing I wonder is why? I get maybe it was space considerations but I also feel like there may also be market considerations at play... Even the AoU live play by CR leaned heavily into trad play. I just wonder if that isn't sending a mixed message to publishers and players.

 

[Scott Christian]

Yes but this is your advertisement for the game... this is where you sell people on how it plays, if you dont then you're setting expectations incorrectly and you end up with an audience that leans more towards the traditional style of play... which I think has happened with DH to a point.

I agree with you. But my gut still tells me their adventure path would be set up differently. And again, it is all hypothetical. I could be really wrong. But it is my guess.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree with you. But my gut still tells me their adventure path would be set up differently. And again, it is all hypothetical. I could be really wrong. But it is my guess.

Chris Perkins is working on it, so we will see soon enough

 

[Neonchameleon]

Reynard, how was your play experience. I have found it to be fun. But, at least in my opinion, it is fun because of our table, not the game's mechanics. There are some rough patches, but that has more to do with playstyle than actual mechanics.

I could summarize the game like this: It is an awesome system if you are at a table full of GMs, as they are used to the improv part of the game.

The thing here is that I'd say it's an awesome system for a table full of GMs, flexible players, or new roleplayers. New roleplayers come in ready, willing, and able to improvise. Long standing players who have stuck to D&D and other trad RPGs, especially when playing adventure paths, have often had that ability atrophy. And this is a damning indictment of D&D 5e and other similar games - and one of the things Daggerheart does better than many other systems is helps people recover the ability to improv while being lower pressure than e.g. something PbtA.